Castlevania: Bloodlines (Version 0.3)
Version 0.3 of Castlevania: Bloodlines is a early prototype with only 2 levels implemented at this point. Stage Select (Stage Entrance) Entering the Konami Code (Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A) at the main menu allows you to enable a stage select. (technically a stage entrance) The stage select is extremely basic as it's just a number at the top, press B''' to increase it by 10 and '''C to decrease it by one, though any values above 29 will crash the game. Interestingly this was mentioned on the January 1996 Sega Channel Dev Disc. Player 2 Commands * Hold Up or Down and press A''' to warp to the next or previous stage entrance, respectively (same order as the table above). The last defined entrance seems to be invalid, as you emerge from the bottom of the screen partway through stage 2-5 and fall to your death; immediately warping to the next entrance from here will return you to the beginning of stage 1-1. * Press '''B to instantly max your character's life bar and gem count. * Press C''' to toggle both music and sound effects on or off. Note that the music will remain silenced until you either die or enter a new area. General Differences * Region lockout isn't implemented. * The opening cinematic is completely different. * The title screen has no background. * The game's default difficulty is easy. * Expert isn't implemented. * Players (amount of lives you start with) is set to 4 by default instead of 3. * The "PRESS START TO EXIT" text in the options menu is absent. * In the final version, setting '''BGM to 05 and SE to 73 in the Options menu, exiting back to the main menu, waiting for the title screen animation to replay, and then entering the Konami Code (Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A) at the main menu will unlock a 9 lives setting in the Options menu. In the prototype, this is a whopping '30 '''lives instead, and only requires the Konami Code. * The password screen is not yet complete, and consists of a simple blue grid on a black background. * The world map displayed between stages in the final game is absent. * The "STAGE X START", "PAUSE", and end-of-stage score tally text is absent. * The game code seems to be horribly unoptimized at this point; both the gameplay and music will frequently slow down when more than a few sprites are active on-screen. * There is a timer in the HUD, though it continuously counts ''upwards and doesn't seem to do much else. * Picking up a gem or a subweapon doesn't count instantly as they do in the final game, as they will only count once their floating animation to the upper HUD is complete. * The blue gem in the HUD will blink when you have enough gems to use the current subweapon. * Picking up a gem when the counter is at 99 awards an extra life. You only seem to be able to do this once. * The game awards life refills at certain score thresholds (20,000, 40,000, maybe others?). * When the player grabs an orb at the end of a stage, the gameplay pauses immediately instead of slowing to a stop after a few seconds.